October 27, 2010

(October 27, 2010) Ed
Boyden is learning how to alter behavior by using light to turn neurons on and
off.

The equipment in Ed Boyden’s lab at MIT is nothing if not
eclectic. There are machines for analyzing and assembling genes; a 3-D printer;
a laser cutter capable of carving an object out of a block of metal; apparatus
for cultivating and studying bacteria, plants, and fungi; a machine for
preparing ultrathin slices of the brain; tools for analyzing electronic
circuits; a series of high-resolution imaging devices. But what Boyden is most
eager to show off is a small, ugly thing that looks like a hairy plastic tooth.
It’s actually the housing for about a dozen short optical fibers of different
lengths, each fixed at one end to a light-emitting diode. When the tooth is
implanted in, say, the brain of a mouse, each of those LEDs can deliver light
to a different location. Using the device, Boyden can begin to control aspects
of the mouse’s behavior.

Mouse brains, or any other brains, wouldn’t normally respond
to embedded lights. But Boyden, who has appointments at MIT as eclectic as his
lab equipment (assistant professor at the Media Lab, joint professor in the
Department of Biological Engineering and the Department of Brain and Cognitive
Sciences, and leader of the Synthetic Neurobiology Group), has modified certain
brain cells with genes that make light-sensitive proteins in plants, fungi, and
bacteria. Because the proteins cause the brains cells to fire when exposed to
light, they give Boyden a way to turn the genetically engineered neurons on and
off.

(October 27, 2010) Five
years ago, neuroscientist Christof Koch of the California Institute of
Technology (Caltech), neurosurgeon Itzhak Fried of UCLA, and their colleagues
discovered that a single neuron in the human brain can function much like a
sophisticated computer and recognize people, landmarks, and objects, suggesting
that a consistent and explicit code may help transform complex visual
representations into long-term and more abstract memories.

Now Koch and Fried, along with former Caltech graduate student
and current postdoctoral fellow Moran Cerf, have found that individuals can
exert conscious control over the firing of these single neurons—despite the
neurons' location in an area of the brain previously thought inaccessible to
conscious control—and, in doing so, manipulate the behavior of an image on a
computer screen.

October 14, 2010

(October 14, 2010) Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the University
of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, and Rajesh Rao,
University of Washington associate professor of computer science and
engineering, with the humanoid robot used to demonstrate “social” interactions
to babies.

Neural Networks

Diagram of the test phase. Top
panel: The baby sits across from the robot. Middle panel: Robot turns its
“head” toward a toy. Babies who did not watch the robot play games with the
researcher did not look to see where the robot looked. Bottom panel: Babies who
had watched the robot play games with the researcher followed the robot’s
“gaze.” They wanted to see what the robot was seeing.

Babies are curious about nearly
everything, and they’re especially interested in what their adult companions
are doing. Touch your tummy, they’ll touch their own tummies. Wave your hands
in the air, they’ll wave their own hands. Turn your head to look at a toy,
they’ll follow your eyes to see what’s so exciting.

October 6, 2010

(October 6, 2010) Some technologies are so cool they make you
do a double take. Case in point: robots being controlled by rat brains. Kevin
Warwick, once a cyborg and still a researcher in cybernetics at the University
of Reading, has been working on creating neural networks that can control
machines. He and his team have taken the brain cells from rats, cultured them,
and used them as the guidance control circuit for simple wheeled robots.
Electrical impulses from the bot enter the batch of neurons, and responses from
the cells are turned into commands for the device. The cells can form new
connections, making the system a true learning machine. Warwick hasn't released
any new videos of the rat brain robot for the past few years, but the three
older clips we have for you below are still awesome. He and his competitors
continue to move this technology forward - animal cyborgs are real.

The skills of these rat-robot
hybrids are very basic at this point. Mainly the neuron control helps the robot
to avoid walls. Yet that obstacle avoidance often shows clear improvement over
time, demonstrating how networks of neurons can grant simple learning to the
machines. Whenever I watch the robots in the videos below I have to do a quick
reality check - these machines are being controlled by biological cells! It's
simply amazing.

October 1, 2010

(October 1, 2010) In this essay I review the accuracy of my
predictions going back a quarter of a century. Included herein is a discussion
of my predictions from The Age of Intelligent Machines (which I wrote in the
1980s), all 147 predictions for 2009 in The Age of Spiritual Machines (which I
wrote in the 1990s), plus others.

Perhaps my most important
predictions are implicit in my exponential graphs. These trajectories have
indeed continued on course and I discuss these updated graphs below.

My core thesis, which I call the
law of accelerating returns, is that fundamental measures of information
technology follow predictable and exponential trajectories, belying the
conventional wisdom that you can’t predict the future.

There are still many things —
which project, company or technical standard will prevail in the marketplace,
or when peace will come to the Middle East — that remain unpredictable, but the
underlying price/performance and capacity of information is nonetheless
remarkably predictable. Surprisingly, these trends are unperturbed by conditions
such as war or peace and prosperity or recession.

About Me

Graduated from University of Marmara, Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Design of Industrial Products and completed her dissertation titled "A Review on the Effects of the Trends & Periods on the Structural Constructions on the Products That are Associated With Consumer Electronics" in the same department for her Master’s Degree.

Lectured at University of Anatolia, Department of Industrial Products on part-time basis. Currently, she has been lecturing on part-time basis Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of Industrial Products Design at University of Doğuş.

She was the Head of ETMK Istanbul Branch from February 2010 to June 2011.

She took part in many competitions and projects as a member of advisory board and jury. Currently, she is the acting executive officer coordinating various projects between the Industry and University at the company where she is employed.

ABOUT THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE:

This blog is created and owned by Özlem Devrim.

TrendsSoul is about all interdisciplinary topics. This blog simply follows all publications worldwide in architecture, science and technology as well as sustainable designs. In doing that, Trendsoul gathers all the news (current or past), which in the view of TrendsSoul possess tips and hints that may influence or have effects on futuristic trends whilst at the same time establishing current trends, and evaluates the same.

On its pages, TrendsSoul publishes the latest news on innovations in science and technology, as well as the latest / newest designs and/or design samples in the disciplines of plastic arts, fashion and jewellery designs, furniture and interior decoration designs, packaging designs and industrial designs (along with the initial specific samples some of which today are considered as antiques).

Purpose of TrendsSoul is simply to assist all concerned individuals and groups who try to foresee what the future may bring or may be holding in store for us in the discipline of design, just like we do at TrendsSoul.

LEGAL WARNING ON THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE:

This blog is a non-commercial website. Whole content of this website is for inspirational purposes only. Photographs, that are published In this website and registered for the name of Özlem Devrim in Picasa Web Album, are personally shot by Özlem Devrim with the permission of their respective owners and/or copyright holders. Those photographs, that are published in Picasa Web Album and on this site in lower resolutions than actual, may be used for non-commercial purposes and relevant reference as to the actual source is provided.

Please also take note that all rights and/or copyrights for other photographs and visual materials, which are currently published on this site that are not shot by Özlem Devrim and therefore not published under Picasa Web Album, belongs to their respective owners. Such materials that are or may be reported as to infringe copyrights are removed forthright.

Also note that, regardless of whether the copyrights belong to Özlem Devrim or any third party person or entity, if you ever wish to or would like to use any of the materials published on this site for commercial purposes, you must by law first get in touch with the actual copyright owner in order to have his/her permission to use.